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The view from Lauren Lindsay’s bedroom window, where she witnessed a catalytic converter theft.

Lauren Lindsay witnessed a catalytic converter theft from her bedroom.

Todd Goulding, owner of Alouis Auto Repair, points out where a catalytic converter was cut off in a Honda Accord that was stolen in San Francisco.

It’s a good time to be a thief in San Francisco.

That was the message city cops delivered in the predawn hours Tuesday when they responded to a 911 call about a man cutting a catalytic converter from the underbelly of a car. The officers arrived to find the alleged thief at the scene of the crime, learned he was on probation for a previous theft and then let him walk off, car jack in hand — even giving him directions to the nearest bus stop.

Roommates Lauren Lindsay and Morgan Heller witnessed the incident and bizarre police response from their apartment at 24th Avenue and Anza Street in the Richmond neighborhood and were left dumbstruck. They’d done everything right: called the cops, kept their eyes on the person the entire time, answered all the officers’ questions and agreed to participate in the case.

“Even if you package it all together with a bow on top, it still doesn’t go anywhere,” said Lindsay, 26. “It makes you feel like the police don’t really care. It makes you feel helpless.”

Lauren Lindsay looks out her bedroom window, where she witnessed the theft of a catalytic converter. Lindsay called police and was shocked when officers arrived but let the thief walk away with his tools.

It makes you feel helpless if you’re a witness or a victim, that’s for sure. But for the thief, it’s got to be emboldening.

“If I was stealing stuff from cars, this would be an encouraging experience,” Lindsay said. “Even if I’m caught red-handed, I’m still not getting arrested.”

Sgt. Adam Lobsinger, an SFPD spokesperson, confirmed the outlines of the incident. Police from Richmond Station responded to a call about an in-progress theft from a vehicle at 3 a.m. Tuesday, located the man, talked to him and the witnesses, and ultimately released the man.

“There was no sufficient probable cause to arrest the suspect,” Lobsinger said. “Releasing a possible suspect ... does not mean the investigation is over. In fact, it means the investigation is just beginning.”

The befuddling incident is the latest example of city cops seeming to shrug off crime, leaving city residents frustrated and wondering where their tax money is going.

“If you collect 100% of your paycheck, you should do 100% of your job,” Heller said.

Complaints about police inaction have been a common refrain in this column for months. Again and again, residents have reported crimes, only to see police do little or nothing about them.

Heller filed a complaint about the catalytic converter case with the city’s Department of Police Accountability. Its online dashboard shows that of the 334 cases opened by the department this year, the biggest portion, 41.4%, relates to neglect of duty — up from 31.9% in 2016.

Despite the swelling complaints, City Hall officials have barely acknowledged them.

Sure, Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors have approved more money to hire officers, raise their salaries and retain them in hopes of filling vacancies and raising morale.

But Breed and Police Chief Bill Scott need to make one thing clearer to officers: If you’re collecting a generous, taxpayer-funded paycheck, you need to do the work.

Police for the past couple of years regularly told residents that making an arrest would do no good because then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin wouldn’t prosecute anyway. Now, he’s been recalled and Breed’s appointee, Brooke Jenkins, is in office. Police who prefer her somewhat tougher approach would be smart to give her good cases so she can do her job.

Breed and Scott haven’t granted interviews for my recent columns on the issue — and weren’t made available for comment this time either.

Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond District, knew the catalytic converter story well after Heller shared it on Nextdoor. The post blew up with commenters who said they, too, had reported crimes only to have police do little or nothing.

Chan said the incident reflected two problems: a rise in catalytic converter thefts by people who know they can saw away the devices in minutes and then recycle the devices’ precious metal, and an increase in residents feeling brushed off by law enforcement.

“I share their concerns,” Chan said. “I am in constant communication with our law enforcement agencies. ... At what point can we get some results?”

San Francisco has one of the highest property crime rates in the nation among big cities. In the first six months of this year, people in the city reported nearly 25,000 property crimes, an increase of 8% from the same time period last year. But city cops make arrests in only a sliver of property crime cases — 3.5% last year.

It sends the message that breaking into cars and homes, stealing bicycles and packages, and sawing off catalytic converters is acceptable here.

The tale of this particular crime began when a loud noise jolted awake Lindsay, Heller and two other people sleeping in their apartment. Lindsay said she looked out her bedroom window to see a man under a Honda Accord parked across their neighbor’s driveway, using power tools to slice the car’s catalytic converter as another man in a Jeep idled next to him.

Lindsay called 911 and four police cars, lights flashing and sirens blaring, arrived within minutes. (So much for the department’s under-staffing claim, huh?)

San Francisco police officers question a man after witnesses called to report someone using power tools under a car parked outside their window.

The driver of the Jeep sped off but left his pal doing the cutting still crouched by the car, a jack next to him and the converter half-sawed off.

Lindsay, from her bedroom window, had her eyes on the thief the entire time. As he stood up when police arrived, she got a good look at his face. She told the officers what she’d seen and then listened as the cops interviewed the man, who admitted to being on probation for a prior theft.

She and Heller were shocked when police told him, “You’re free to go,” and even told him where to catch the bus.

The women asked the officers why nothing could be done. They both said that officers explained they didn’t know who owned the Honda because their computers were down citywide, leaving them unable to run the license plate number. Without that information, the cops said, there was no victim.

Lobsinger, the police spokesperson, said the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System was down at the time. The statewide system is accessed by the city’s Department of Emergency Management. A spokesperson for that department said system outages are “infrequent but they do occur.”

Turns out, the Honda had been stolen that night from a home 10 blocks away. The officers left it parked across the neighbor’s driveway, its stereo swiped, its windows down, its doors unlocked and its catalytic converter destroyed.

The car’s owner, who asked that his name be withheld, said a parking control officer came to his door the next morning to tell him his Honda was about to be towed. He hadn’t yet realized it had been stolen. Fixing all the damage will run him $2,000, he said.

I ran the entire scenario past Frank Falzon, a retired SFPD homicide inspector who worked famous cases including the Zodiac, Zebra and Night Stalker killings.

“I can’t explain that,” he said, sounding incredulous. “In my generation, that would have been one hell of a good pinch cops would have been happy to make.

“I’ll tell you what I would have done,” he continued. “He would have been placed in handcuffs, he would have been read his Miranda rights, I would have called for a wagon, and he would have been booked. Absolutely.”

He said he would have booked him on two felony charges — for stealing the Honda and slicing its catalytic converter — and then let the D.A. take it from there.

That would have been more reassuring for Heller, who got quite a different message that night. She said police officers’ huge response to the mass looting at Louis Vuitton and other high-end stores in Union Square last year was entirely different.

“That was over bags, which don’t belong to any San Franciscans. They belong to corporations,” she said. “This vehicle and its catalytic converter belonged to a San Franciscan, a resident of 30 years, and they don’t give a f—.”

“You can be caught with the reddest of hands and walk away,” she said. “It’s embarrassing.”

Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

Heather Knight is a columnist working out of City Hall and covering everything from politics to homelessness to family flight and the quirks of living in one of the most fascinating cities in the world. She believes in holding politicians accountable for their decisions or, often, lack thereof - and telling the stories of real people and their struggles.

She co-hosts the Chronicle's TotalSF podcast and co-founded its #TotalSF program to celebrate the wonder and whimsy of San Francisco.